Salina man hopes to transform flour mill, redevelop area

Salina  The owner of a Salina mill has proposed a multimillion-dollar plan to transform the H.D. Lee Flour Mill and Grain Elevator into either townhomes or hotel rooms, with a restaurant 100 feet off the ground.

The Salina Journal reports that 63-year-old Bob Brown, who bought the mill nearly two years ago, has teamed up with others to revitalize the area in north Salina where the mill is located.

A conceptual video from local visualization artist Mike Munson and David Exline, from the California-based Exline Design & Architecture, shows what the mill may look like after redevelopment. The video has garnered over 13,000 hits on Exline's and Brown's Facebook pages as of Wednesday, according to Brown.

The next step in the project is collecting $300,000 to $500,000 of private seed money to look at the mill's structure and make sure that is sound.